Real Bento

After waking up late today I rushed around the kitchen trying to find something to pack for lunch. Cheese cubes, a pita, 2 hard boiled eggs and some cucumber slices went into a box for Mom, Matt and I to share as we headed for the door. We get to work and what does mom say? "I don't think that'll feed all of us. Let's get bento for lunch." Oh bliss!


Our real bento: mixed tempura, gyoza, california rolls, salad and teriyaki chicken on rice. What could be better on a rainy day? :D

Breakfast and Curry

Not much about the bentos today. I don't feel like typing a bunch of stuff. Happy Thanksgiving! :D

Bento #31 (mine)


Bottom tier: Crackers, swiss laughing cow cheese, and dried apricots
Top: Fresh pineapple skewers and a bear shaped hard boiled egg.

Bento #32 (Josh's)


Bottom round: Rice and tofu/veggie curry. I sandwiched the curry with the rice to keep it warmer longer.
Second round: Homemade gyoza and tonkatsu sauce.
Top: crackers, swiss laughing cow cheese, dried apricots, baby banana and a Ghirardelli chocolate.

The Holiday Approacheth

Since we'll have to cook so much food tomorrow and Thursday I got a head start on my sushi tray tonight. And you know what that means: More pictures! :D

I don't have a musubi press, but I found a really easy way to make spam musubi without one. First I cut the spam block in half and then cut it into strips. I put those in the marinade while I shaped the rice:


After that I took the marinaded spam and fried it on med heat for a few minutes. It doesn't take long:


Then simply assembled them:


And bagged them up with the inarizushi I also made:


All of this probably took me 1 1/2-2 hours.(I ended up with about 40 musubi and 20 inarizushi) And we still have to make Thanksgiving dinner. Blech. I'm sick of cooking. But I still made Josh a lunch because I am a nice sister. :P

Bento #30 (Josh's)


Mixed greens with cranberries and almonds, leftover inarizushi rice, dried apples and apricots with a bottle of salad dressing, carrot sticks, grape tomatos and a baby banana.

I put an antibacterial sheet over the rice because it has a tendincy to "hop" into other parts of the container.

Sushi Bento

Took a trip to Daiso and H mart today with mom and picked up lots of goodies. She's employed me to make a sushi plate for Thanksgiving. She really enjoys Asian stuff now and we're both learing a lot about Japanese culture. I'm reading this book aloud in the car. It's really charming and fasinating. I highly reccomend it for anyone who's interested in Japanese food. speaking of Japanese food...(see what I did there. Oh, so clever. :P)

Bento #28 (Josh)


clockwise from top left: Vegetable maki from H mart, homemade spam musubi, munster cheese, container of ranch dressing, white bread, cutie (clementine) orange, baby banana, walnut pancake, grape tomatos, and celery and carrot sticks. Phew...a lot of ingredients. I made Dad bento too but the only difference was some umeboshi (pickled plums) instead of bread.

Easy, easy lunches. I made a large batch of Spam musubi this week and froze them. Just tossed them in the microwave for a minute and they were perfect. They're so easy to make. I don't have a musubi press yet, so I used my onigiri mold and cut the Spam smaller. I got the recipe from www.cookingcute.com

One more thing. Check out my photos from our trip to the Federal Way bonsai collection today. More photos to come soon. http://www.flickr.com/photos/16063815@N08/sets/72157603241039666/

A Little Under the Weather

Not feeling that great today and today's bento reflects it. I wish I could've had fresh hot rice though. That is my ultamite comfort food.

Bento #27 (mine)


In the yellow box I have granola, dried mango and a tangerine in the bottom and about half an Asian pear in the top. The round container has some saltines, 2 packs of hot and sour soup and a green tea bag and the hello kitty bottle is full of apple juice.



And here it is all closed up. I love that bag. I got it for a dollar at Target and was suprised with how big it was once unfolded. Score! :D

A Package from Japan

I'm so happy! I got my egg molds in the mail today!

So many cute shapes. We tried them out today and some of them got messed up because I didn't peel them right. I'll have to keep making them until they look nice.

Another trip to Daiso this weekend brought more fun goodies. Silicone baking cups, an oshibori, and a new box.



Bento #23 (Mine from a few days ago) :


With nothing for rederence, you might think this is big. Well it's not! :P
Persian cucumber, clemintine orange, asian walnut pancakes (not sure about the real name), mini eggrolls and strawberry yogurt.

Bento #24 (Josh):


On the top is Leftover rice and tofu/vegatable stirfry from dinner last night, bottom is clemintine oranges, carrot sticks, and a blue egg shaped like a car.